


Versed

by OrionRedde, Shyrstyne



Series: Cometverse [79]
Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Child Abuse, Multi, background terrqua
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:09:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27194255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrionRedde/pseuds/OrionRedde, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shyrstyne/pseuds/Shyrstyne
Summary: Vanitas no longer makes monsters. He has taken great comfort from this fact in the past. Despite all he wants to hope however, some abilities don't just disappear.
Series: Cometverse [79]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1285373
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	Versed

**Author's Note:**

> this was originally two seperate chapters, intended to have some extra stuff between them to allow for buildup, but things didn't quite go to plan and thankfully at least the two fit pretty seamlessly into each other.
> 
> also the mastery thing was another thing we meant to get around to and never did. somewhere in the last couple years ven and vani made master. probably so did sora and kairi at some point.

“Hey Van! You coming?” Ventus calls, waving excitedly from the steps, dressed to the nines and beaming. Terra leans over to ruffle his hair, similarly dressed, grinning at his enthusiasm. 

“I thought you said balls were stuffy?” Terra quips, causing Ventus to shove his hand away with a pout. 

“Aw come on Terra I was like. Fifteen. I'm not a kid any more.”

“No, but you still act like one.” Comes Aqua’s voice as she steps out into the entrance hall. She’s dressed in a similar style to Ven and Terra, signalling their shared apprenticeship and titles as Masters, the trim suits differing only for minor style changes and in colour. 

Terra looks like he’s never seen anything more radiant. 

“Now who’s holding us up?” Vanitas pokes at him. “Are we going or not?”

“We’re going, we’re going.” Ven trots down the steps, not bothering to try and budge Terra from his stupor. “Cmon, time waits for no Master!”

“This still feels like overkill.” Vanitas rolls his eyes. “What do Keyblade Masters need a fancy ball for?”

“We don’t, but Cinderella really wanted to do something for us after all the work we did there last time, and nobody can say no to her.” Ven shrugs. “Besides, you wouldn’t let us do an actual celebration when you made Master, so you have to sit through this now.”

The two meander their way towards the ship. They could have all used their gliders, but with the fancy nature of the occasion it was decided they would come in groups. 

“Riku didn’t have a celebration either.” Vanitas points out. 

“How do you even know about that?” Ven questions. 

“Sora told me. By which he whined that Riku never lets him do anything fun for him.”

“They’re coming too right?” 

“Sora is.” Vanitas shrugs. “He really wanted to bring Kaze as his plus one though, since Riku is all.. Batty right now and can't.”

“I’m surprised Sora’s coming at all then, really.”

“I think Kairi’s making him make a token appearance on their behalf while she stays back with Riku.”

Aqua and Terra stumble in a few minutes later, hair and clothes in only slight disarray, which they painstakingly try to correct as they board. Vanitas makes a face at them. 

“Really?”

“Look some of us have needs okay.” Aqua says imperiously, stalking towards the drivers seat and pointedly not looking at him. He levels his flat stare at Terra instead, who has the gall to just shrug and smile at him. 

“I am never going to understand you people.” Vanitas huffs. Ven just laughs at him. 

Van flicks through his phone as they make their way towards Cinderella’s world. Ven peers over his shoulder, spying on his messages and being a nuisance. 

“Lea still being a grump over not being invited?” He asks, reading the text from Lea as it comes in. Vanitas huffs again. 

“All he had to do was take the stupid test and he’d be a Master like the rest of us but nooo it’s all ‘I don’t need to be a Master’ this and ‘I don’t need a test to show my worth’ that.”

“Maybe this’ll change his mind.” Ven suggests, but Vanitas just laughs. 

“Nah he’s too stubborn for that. Besides, he could have smuggled himself in if he wanted to, the offer was there.”

Not that he’d leave Comet or Isa behind. 

“True enough.” Ven concedes. 

They rest there companionably for a while, Vanitas scrolling mildly through his phone while trying not to pick at his (somewhat uncomfortable) formal wear, and Ventus leaning over his shoulder making comments. 

When Ventus goes quiet for a while, Vanitas is prompted to look up, and is met with Ventus thinking hard about something. 

“Don’t hurt yourself.” Vanitas comments idly, which makes Ven poke his tongue out at him. 

“Shut up.”

“Nah. What’s got you looking like you’re trying to solve one of Isa’s word problems though?”

“I just..” Ven sighs. “We’re getting older. It feels weird.”

 _Of course it does, we were young for so long._ Vanitas finds himself thinking.

It’s a strange thought, but he doesn’t dwell on it.

Sometimes he feels like there are memories there, slipping like sand between his fingers, but he doesn’t chase them. It’s a life that doesn’t belong to either him or Ventus now, a life that died when Xehanort split them in two, and he feels no urge to try and reclaim it any more. 

He shrugs. 

“Yeah?” 

“Yeah.” Ven chews on his lip. “Do you… ah, never mind.”

Van puts his phone down. 

“Do I what?”

“No no, I just realized it was a really stupid question.” Ventus shakes his head, and Vanitas narrows his eyes. 

“You don’t get out that easy, finish what you started.”

Ven mumbles something indistinct, and flushes a little when Vanitas prods him. 

“I was gonna ask if you ever feel like you’re missing something.” Ven finally says, not meeting his eyes. 

Vanitas stares. 

“You’re right that is a stupid question.” He says blandly. Ventus ducks his head, accepting the soft recrimination. Vanitas sighs. 

“... I guess I don’t though, not anymore.”

Ventus glances at him quizzically. Vanitas raises an eyebrow. 

“Your question. I don’t feel like I’m missing anything anymore. I want to find a new purpose, and I don’t know if I’ve managed _that_ yet, but inside? I think I finally feel whole again.”

“Oh.”

Vanitas peers over at him. 

“Do _you_ feel like you’re missing something?”

Ventus shrugs. 

“I guess? I don’t know. I found.. well I found some old notes from Xehanort, where he mentioned picking us up and I started thinking. Where did we come from? Before that? Did we have friends? Family? Where are they?”

_I’m your new partner! My name is Ch-_

Vanitas shakes his head. 

“Does it matter? They’re all long gone.”

“Why do you think that?” Ven asks, voice suddenly hard. Vanitas pauses. 

“I don’t know.”

They sit quietly for a while. 

“I think I want to find out.” Ventus says eventually. 

“I thought you said it was better off that you didn’t know.” Vanitas counters. 

“That was _six years ago!_ I’m allowed to change my mind.” Ven protests. “Besides, I was talking about training under Xehanort then. This is about _before_ that.”

“Hm.” Vanitas hums. “What are you going to do then?”

“I don’t know.” Ventus slumps. 

“Hm.” Vanitas hums again. “Well.. at least you have time to figure it out right?”

Ven smiles. 

“Yeah. You’re right.”

The ship lands and they disembark, Terra and Aqua leading the way arm in arm up to a pair waiting on the palace steps as Ventus and Vanitas trail behind. 

Cinderella greets them warmly and leads them inside, informing them of the festivities to come. Vanitas tunes out for the most part, fully intending to do the bare minimum for ceremonial purposes and then bail for a quieter part of the hall. 

Servants rush by, doing frantic last minute preparations for the party. One in particular catches his attention, an older man shoving roughly at a boy who could not be more than a year into his teens. The kid is carrying a heavy fruit tray and frantically trying to keep it balanced as the old man gestures impatiently. 

He pauses, and when Ven looks back for him, curious, Vanitas merely waves him off. He vanishes into a teleport, and Ventus merely shrugs, jogging to catch back up with Terra and Aqua. 

Vanitas reappears near the top of a support pillar, calling the earth to ground him and hold him there, clinging to its side and peering down into the surrounding area. People tend not to look up after all. The old man has pulled the boy past some thick hanging curtains, meant to separate serving areas and the general public, and is pulling on his ear and whispering harshly. 

Van only catches bits and pieces, even with enhanced hearing, but it’s enough to make him clench his jaw in anger. 

“....upid! Never should have… apprenticeship… -issapointment….”

The boy stays still, as if knowing any movement will make it worse. It doesn’t help. The man shoves him roughly once more, this time causing the tray to topple, spilling its contents across the ground. The man begins to yell, clouting the boy upside the head and berating his clumsiness. 

Vanitas feels his blood _boil_. 

The boy drops to his knees in a futile attempt to gather the ruined fruit as the man continues to verbally abuse him, now loudly threatening his future prospects if he continues to fail ‘like this’. 

Vanitas is already ready to jump down and tear the old man a new one when-

“Bah! Worthless, is what you are. Never should have taken you on.” He punctuates the statement with a solid kick to the boys midsection, throwing him several feet. 

Vanitas feels the _rage_ in his veins reach a fever pitch, _pouring_ like a vicious gas from him as he _roars_ in sheer protective anger. 

The old man’s second kick never connects, bouncing ineffectually off the thing that’s just appeared between him and the boy, tall and wide and looming aggressively over the man. 

Vanitas finds himself drawing back in shock. 

It looks like a Bruiser. 

It looks like an _unversed._

The boy whines lowly as he attempts to leverage himself up onto his knees, clutching his side. His fancy gala servants outfit shifts, revealing older fading bruises and scars. The Bruiser doesn’t move. 

_No it can’t- It can’t be the unversed_. Is all Vanitas can think, still clinging to the pillar and watching events below. _It’s been so long, nearly a decade, why **now-?**_

The old man recovers from his shock, glaring at the sudden appearance of the beast. 

“Who- what are you? Move!” He attempts to move around it, only to be thoroughly blocked by the bruisers bulk. It growls loudly at him, a warning and threat. 

“Ach! Move you great beast!” The old man tries to shove his way past, gesturing sharply. The boy flinches, and as if sensing it the Bruiser smacks the old man away with an audible crack. 

Hard. 

He skids to a stop several yards away and lays unmoving. 

The boy looks up at the Bruiser in both awe and fear. Vanitas finally gathers himself enough to remember how to breathe and releases the gathered rock around his feet, jumping down. 

He lands in front of the Bruiser, and though he hates turning his back on anything, he knows the old man is no threat to him even at his best most likely.

“You okay kid?” He tries to move towards the boy, convincing himself that he’ll deal with the unversed _later_ , when the Bruiser unexpectedly shifts to block his path. 

“What-?” He mutters, confused. He looks up at it and looks(?) back impassively. He reevaluates his previous assessment; it’s reminiscent of a Bruiser, but not quite the same. The colours are different, and while it’s still got its sharp edges it almost seems softer now. 

And it acts nothing like them. Waiting still and silent and completely _ignoring his command._

“I’m.. I’m okay..” the boy answers quietly, drawing himself up to his feet. “What.. what is that…?”

Vanitas doesn’t know. 

The boy finishes standing but grunts and leans heavily against the nearby wall. Vanitas tries to step forward again, drawn by old memories of once being in a similar position, only to find himself blocked by the Bruiser once more. 

“Let me through!” He demands, angry at the unexpected impudence of something that should be _his_. “You came from _me,_ why won’t you-“

“It came from you?” The boy looks up at him with wide eyes. “You helped me?”

Vanitas freezes in his tracks. He hadn’t meant to say that. 

“I- I couldn’t-“ Van struggles to find what to say, especially as the boy begins to visibly tear up. 

“Thank you,” The boy gasps like he can’t quite believe it, or that it will somehow be rescinded. “But, when he wakes up-“ he glances at the body laying nearby. 

Vanitas follows his gaze, scoffing at the still dazed body. 

“He won’t hurt you again. I’ll make sure of it.”

As if revived by their words, the man grunts as he shifts, coming to. He gasps as he sees the Bruiser, and then scrambles away as both it and Vanitas growl lowly at him. 

He leaves in a panic, and though Van can still feel the weight of the unversed on his back, he takes some pleasure in the pants-shitting look of fear on the old bastards face as he flees. 

He returns his gaze to the Bruiser, and attempts to call it back. 

It doesn’t dissipate. 

“Why won’t you come back?” He asks it. It can’t answer, but he feels the soft confusion overlayed with an unbending purpose. 

It’s so unlike the unversed from before, wild things made from wild emotions he could often barely name. It’s still made of emotions, but it’s almost.. controlled now. Purposeful in an entirely different way. He feels it pulsing, separate yet still connected in a way he hasn’t experienced in almost a decade. 

He looks back at the kid. 

“What’s your name?” He asks. 

“Tabir.”

Vanitas looks at the Bruiser, who isn’t acting aggressive, but still solidly planted as a wall between him and Tabir. 

Tabir glances between the two, brows furrowed as he thinks. After a moment he steps forward, reaching out cautiously to rest a hand on the Bruiser’s thick arm. 

“It’s okay. He can- he can pass?” 

The Bruiser turns its face toward the boy, some silent communication, before silently and deliberately stepping aside. 

Vanitas’ mind is in a whirl. 

He can still feel the Bruiser, solid and confident at the edge of his senses, but it listens to the boy instead of him? _It doesn’t make any sense._

“There! There’s the monster that attacked us!”

All three turn to look at the group just entering the area, led by the old man pointing angrily at them. Aqua, Ven and Sora follow close behind, faces grim. Cinderella follows at a short distance, hampered impressively little by her heavy gown. 

For a brief, paralyzing moment, Van feels fifteen again, full of rage and despair facing down Aqua’s thunderous glare with the unversed at his heels. 

But then it passes, and she checks him over as she approaches, face full of concern, not anger like it might have once been. 

“Are you okay?” She asks, and he nods, despite the fear rolling deep inside at the appearance of the unversed. She glances at it, obviously suspicious, but says nothing as she straightens. 

“What happened?” Ven asks, and before Vanitas can answer the old man interrupts. 

“That monster attacked us! Attacked my poor apprentice! You’re keyblade masters, destroy it!”

The Bruiser, which has once more placed itself between Tabir and everyone else, growls lowly. 

“You’re a liar.” Vanitas says, voice cold and hard. “Leave now or I will make you.”

“How dare you! I am a senior Steward here!”

“Bertrand, calm yourself.” Cinderella speaks calmly and with authority, a far cry from the shy but hopeful girl who once escaped the slavery of her mother. “Vanitas, explain.”

“He hurt the boy, I saw it.” He answers curtly, and then takes a deep breath. “I summoned the Bruiser to stop him.”

He doesn’t know if that’s exactly the truth, doesn’t know exactly what he did to call the Bruiser, but it’s close enough and he doesn’t want to try and pick it apart in the midst of others. 

“It _is_ yours then?” That draws Aqua up short, pulling away. He tries not to let on how much that hurts. He glances at the old man and back to her meaningfully, silently asking her not to get into it here. 

She takes his meaning and nods, face serious but, he hopes, not condemning. 

“Right.” She says. “Ella?”

Cinderella needs no more hints, nodding seriously. 

“Of course. Bertrand, come with me. The Masters will investigate here, I would like to ask you some questions.”

She leads him away and he trails behind her looking suddenly afraid. Vanitas glares at his back with fists clenched. 

“Bruiser huh?” Ventus draws his attention away, peering up at the monster on tiptoes. It doesn’t react beyond appearing to peer back. 

“Ven wait-“ Vanitas feels his heart stutter, old memories of pain and loneliness and anger coming to the fore, but neither Ven nor the Bruiser make any move. 

Ven turns to him with a smile. 

“This is great!”

“How is this great?!” Vanitas explodes, startling Ventus and Tabir both. “I’m not _supposed to be making monsters anymore._ ”

“But Van-“ Sora interrupts. “It hasn’t attacked anyone that didn’t deserve it as far as I can tell. I don’t see any monsters here.”

Vanitas feels the air leave him all at once, leaving him light headed. 

“Yeah.” Ventus nods. “It’s just kinda sitting there.” He pokes it, as if to prove his point, and it’s only reaction is to turn its head towards him. If he didn’t know any better, Vanitas would think the emotion conveyed was the equivalent of a raised eyebrow. 

Vanitas turns his gaze to Aqua, who purses her lips. 

“It does look very… docile.”

The boy, Tabir is quiet amidst this exchange, edging closer to the large Bruiser, almost huddled against it now. 

“It’s still not supposed to be.. like this. Get back here.” He tries to command, but though it’s edges drift slightly, like smoke, it merely sits heavily and refuses to move. 

_‘Why won’t you answer?’_ He thinks, viciously frustrated and almost.. Scared.

He doesn’t want to think about what him summoning the Unversed again _means._

Broken, in pain, and falling apart. 

_Less important._ Drifts across his consciousness. 

_‘Less important than what?_ ’ He thinks, and the creature tilts its head. 

_Previous directive._

“Does it have to go?” The question is small and quiet, but startles Vanitas anyway. He looks down at Tabir, now all but clinging to the Bruisers side. “She saved me.”

 _Protect._ The Bruiser nods. 

“She?” Sora asks, but goes ignored. 

“I…” Van doesn’t know what to do. “I don’t think you’d be allowed to cart around something this big, even if..”

Even if it was for sure safe. Vanitas didn’t trust that yet. He could only imagine no one else did either.

“It certainly stands out.” Aqua agrees. 

“It reminds me a little bit of some of the dream eaters actually.” Sora notes idly. 

Tabir’s face falls, and Vanitas remembers the faded bruises peaking out under rumpled clothing. 

“I’m going to talk to Cinderella.” He says suddenly, turning and walking away before anyone else can react. 

-

Four months later, he feels the Bruiser return. It’s unlike how any unversed had felt before. There’s the surge of protective instinct, but without the constant cycle of pain begetting pain, just a smooth reintegration of old and familiar feeling. 

A week later, he gets a letter. 

_‘I let Maddie (the monstr you let me keep) go today. I hope that’s okay._

_I feel safe here, mmissus Ella has made sure of it, and I’m very thankful. She’s even been helping me with my spelling. I thought, even thouh I love Maddie very much, she should go home, so maybe she could help someone else._

_Thank you very much. You and Maddie saved me from Master Bernar, and missus Ella is planning to adopt me officially now. It’s all because of you. Thank you._

_Tabir’_

Vanitas hides in his closet for the first time in years and cries, parchment clutched in one trembling fist. 

When he comes out again, it’s with a newfound conviction and something like the beginnings of an idea. 

He’s hesitant to attempt summoning his feelings into physical forms at first, and rightfully so with his history, but when the creatures summoned are only aggressive if attacked, he finds himself tentatively hopeful. 

He tries to shape them, make them slightly more… incognito, but they’re always just slightly off, and always in entirely wrong colours. But they’re often more versatile than the massive Bruiser at least. 

He hangs out in the small park at the center of Twilight Town sometimes, watching Lea lead an impromptu sparring lesson with a group of local kids. It’s not uncommon for Lea, even with his own kids well into adulthood, he keeps accumulating more. Vanitas smirks as Lea is swarmed by a dozen cheering and rambunctious children, laughing even as he goes down. 

His eye is drawn by one off to the side, a young girl watching the proceedings with an intense longing but not joining in. A small fist clenches in the heavy sweater she’s wearing before she winces and puts her hands down. 

Vanitas watches, intent. 

The next days are much the same. 

One day she shows up with a black eye. 

Lea asks what happened, and the child just shakes her head, silent as she always is.

He doesn’t know how he knows, he just _does._

Vanitas breathes, smoke pouring from his lips and coalescing before him. 

It’s like a mix between a cat and a flood, or at least is inspired by them, in black and green, matching the colours the little girl always wears, and the upside down unversed symbol across its face. 

It gives him a single, long look, before slinking off. 

_Will learn._ Is all he hears from it as it vanishes from his sight, but not his senses.

He spends that evening with Ventus, getting takeout from the bistro. He tells him about the cat, the creatures..

How uncertain he feels about it all. 

“They’re not really Unversed, but I don’t know what to call them.” He admits, stirring his unsweetened lemonade idly. Ventus hums. 

“Well they were Unversed because they were emotions you couldn’t deal with right?”

“My heart was broken and in too much pain.” Vanitas confirms, the wounds old enough to speak casually of now, at least in trusted company. “But creating them only left me open to more. Vicious cycle.”

“This is kinda like, the opposite of that, right?” Ventus continues. “They’re made of feeling, but it’s like.. for a purpose, you know? Controlled.”

“Kind of.” Vanitas considers it. 

“Would that make them the Versed then?” Ventus asks, slurping on his smoothie. “Because they’re all learned now?”

Vanitas considers that. 

“That’s a stupid name.” He pronounces. Ven just rolls his eyes. 

“It’s just a suggestion you don’t have to use it.”

“No I love it, I’m using it forever.” He grins, and Ven jabs his elbow into Vanitas‘ side good naturedly. 

“Jerk. You coming to Sora’s thing next week?”

“You mean the scheduled pack cuddles because he feels like he doesn’t see us all enough?” Vanitas says dryly. “We’ll see.”

“Aw c’mon, it’ll be fun. You know Sora, never a dull moment.”

“I think you’re thinking of Kairi.” Vanitas responds, remembering all too well the hair dye shampoo incident. Even Kairi had admitted she’d gone too far after that one. Ven laughs. 

He gets home and waves Ventus off, laying awake in bed deep into the night, though he tries his best to get some sleep.

_Hurt!_

Anger lances across his heart, followed by the sharp pain of death and reintegration old and familiar to him. 

The little cat Versed rejoins him, but it’s no smooth process this time. He digs at the ball of anger, concentrating, and for just a moment sees the bulk of someone’s fist, moving at speed, and in the corner sits the small, curled up form of a child. 

Vanitas doesn’t need the Versed to still be there to follow the feeling to the site it died. He is out of bed and leaving the house before anyone else in the house even has the chance to stir. 

-

He hadn’t been panicked when he’d called Comet, but clearly _something_ had shown on his face because when they answer their face immediately settles into a grim seriousness. 

“Are you okay? What happened?” They ask, alert despite the late hour and clear bedhead. 

“I’m fine.” He answers, voice rough. He shifts the camera to show the kid clinging to him, face pressed into his side. 

“Oh _shit._ ” He hears Comet breathe. “How far-“

“I’ll be home in a few minutes, I don’t want to teleport with- I need the elixirs from my stash.” His jacket is sticky and he knows all too well what from. 

“Done.” And the phone clicks off. No words wasted. He runs home as smoothly as he can manage, but there’s no helping the tiny hiccups of pain the child tries to stifle.

Even with the elixirs and Comets help there was no saving the eye. Comet calls Aerith, but it had been too long and to something so very delicate, damage control was the best they could do. He teleports Aerith in to help, but he still feels useless. She does her best, but an hour later she comes out and tells them she’s done all she can and the girl should be awake by morning, though not in the same shape she was before.

Somehow he wants to apologize, but he doesn’t know how to phrase it. Sorry for not being faster? For not seeing it coming? For forgetting to grab supplies in his haste?

The next morning he approaches the door that was once his but now held a different scared child on the other side, breakfast plate balanced on one hand. He knocks and then enters, regretting the wince the child gives as the shaft of light from the hall lances into the room.

“I know you’re awake.” He says, blunt but quiet. “You should eat something.”

The kid shakes her head, though not very hard, wincing as the pillow brushes against her bandages. He settles on the edge of the bed, reaching out to place the plate within her reach, but too far for he himself to reach her. She tenses but doesn’t shuffle away.

“You’ll feel better with food.” He insists, remembering the long cold nights on the badlands, recovering with only the dark to sustain him. 

She shakes her head again, harder this time. 

“Okay.” He leans back. He’s not here to force her. He pauses, awkward. “Does it hurt?”

The kid tenses, but then nods. 

“Okay.” He can do something about that at least. “I’ll get some painkillers and water. I’ll be back soon.”

When he gets back he finds her clutching one of the big pillows tightly, only to chuck it nearly across the room in apparent fear on seeing him. He sets the glass and little bottle on the side table. He hands her one of the little pills, which she swallows dry. 

He hands her the glass, and she looks at him distrustfully. 

“You’re… supposed to drink water with it.”

Her eyes narrow and her head quirks just slightly, clearly questioning. 

“I don’t know why.” He understands the question. “I’d have to ask Comet.”

Her gaze darts to the door. 

“They’re downstairs.” He’s not used to talking this much, carrying the conversation. Usually he has Ven or Sora there to help, or he’s with someone who doesn’t mind his particular brand of intense quiet. “They’re my Ren, you can trust them.”

The questioning look is more obvious this time, and this time he’s not sure what she’s asking. 

“Do you want me to get them?”

Head shake. 

“Okay. You can meet them later.”

She doesn’t look enthused, but at least she doesn’t seem terrified at the prospect either. He coughs awkwardly, getting up and fishing in a nearby drawer, trying to remember things he might have heard Lea saying kids liked. 

He lays out some paper and pencil, and there are some old books on the shelf nearby. He’s not sure what else to do, what a kid might like. He’s never been that small, and has only vague memories of the old Ventus’ childhood. 

_‘Top scorer this week! Good job getting all that Lu-‘_

_‘Master I’m not strong en-‘_

Somehow he doesn’t think it’s the same.

He remembers the alternate version of himself too, years ago now, who he’d tried to help and failed. Does he really think he can help this tiny, hurt person when he couldn’t even help himself?

He takes the bottle with him and meets Comet downstairs, walking up to drop his head on their shoulder without a word. It’s a little awkward, he’s quite a bit taller than them now, but they don’t seem to mind as they lean into the touch. They reach up with one hand to rub circles in his back comfortingly. 

“Was this what you felt like all the time?” _With me?_ goes unsaid but heard. 

“Angry? Protective? Like you don’t know what you’re doing but if you roll them up in a blanket and never let anyone touch them again maybe it’ll be okay?”

“Yeah.”

“The severity changes.”

He lifts his head just enough to press his cheek into their collar instead of his forehead. 

“Do you still?”

“Do I still love you?” They ask with a smile by way of answering. “I would still murder Xehanort on sight if that’s what you’re asking, and I’m always going to be worried about you, but you have to live your own life and make your own choices too. It’s a balance. Sometimes it’s hard, but I’ve never once regretted it.”

He turns his face back into their shoulder, suddenly overwhelmed for an entirely different reason.

“I’m going to do it wrong.” _I’m scared I’m going to hurt her more, like how I was._

“You will.” Comet says, and his heart seizes before they continue. “Being a parent means you’re going to fuck up. Stars know I have. But being a parent also means learning from that, doing better than you did before. More important than anything I think is just making sure the kid knows they’re loved. Obviously there are lines in the extremes, but you know that better than anyone, I would think.”

After a long few minutes he straightens. 

“I should go check on her.” He says, voice raspy. He’s not in were form but he can feel the urge to purr under his skin. He might have to shift later, once he’s sure doing so won’t scare the kid upstairs. He doesn’t know yet what might set her off. 

Comet comes with him. 

When he opens the door the child startles and shoves something in her mouth. His first instinct is to lurch forward and try to take it out, born of many incidents between him and some of his very stubborn siblings, but he halts when the child scrambles backwards, back against the wall and breathing hard through her nose. 

Comet gently pushes past him and moving slowly goes to kneel in front of the bed, keeping themself at eye level with the kid. 

“Hey.” They say softly. “I’m Comet, I’m Vanitas’ ren. His Parent. It’s nice to meet you properly.”

They pause. The child doesn’t react other than to stare with a wide eye at them both.

“What did you put in your mouth?” Comet continues. “You’re not in trouble, I just want to make sure it won’t hurt you.”

Her gaze flicks to the blank papers on the side table. 

“The paper?” Vanitas catches it. “Why?”

Her gaze casts downwards. He can’t decipher an answer there. 

“You’re not in trouble.” Comet says again, and then lifts their hands, signing as they talk. “Do you know any sign? I’m a little rusty, but I do know it. So does Van.”

He does. He remembers Comet admitting they should have taught it to all their kids long before they had, especially Vanitas early on, prone to silent days as he had been (and still sometimes was), but Vanitas knows in those early days he hadn’t really been in the right mindset to learn anyways. 

He’d learned eventually, and that’s good enough for him.

The little girl gives a look to Comets hands that Vanitas can only interpret to be longing, and then shakes her head. 

“We could teach you if you want.”

Her look becomes the very essence of doubtful.

“Only if you want.” Comet says, and then stands. “I have to make some calls though. A lot more people need to know about this than when I took you in.” They address the last part to Vanitas, who huffs a sardonic laugh. Things were a lot more complicated when you already had a place in society already, apparently.

He nods, and they pull him in for a quick hug on their way out the door. It’s just him and the kid now. 

She looks tense, so he sits on the floor instead of the bed this time. 

He pulls out his phone, internally debating what to do next. 

“Does it still hurt?” He asks. She nods. 

“Sorry. I don’t think I can give you any more painkillers. We can try-“ he pauses when she opens her mouth and the wad of paper she’d stuffed in there earlier tumbles out. 

She says nothing, and doesn’t move otherwise. 

He blinks, confused. She stares at him, unblinking. He reaches out and picks up the sodden paper from her lap. 

There’s something drawn on it. 

He unfurls it carefully, and though the image is distorted and crude, it’s definitely the childlike rendition of a cat. Or something resembling a cat, with a smudged but still distinct mark on its forehead. 

He looks up, and the child has curled in on herself, avoiding his gaze. 

“Oh.” He says, feeling somewhat silly. After how attached Tabir had gotten to his Versed companion, he should have seen it coming that she might have been fond of the one that had taken a hit meant for her. 

“You liked it, didn’t you?” He asks quietly. Her expression scrunches, holding back tears. 

“I’ll see what I can do.” He’s never tried to form the same Versed twice, letting them take form as they will, let alone one that had been forcibly.. dissipated. 

To his surprise her expression grows angry and she jerks her whole body to face away from him. 

He quirks his head, but every time he tries to talk to her she puts her hands over her ears and refuses to listen. 

Eventually he has to leave her to it. Maybe he’d said something wrong? 

She won’t look at him when he brings dinner. Comet gives her a quick update to the situation (she’s not going back to her parents, both have been arrested, and someone will be by tomorrow to go over options), but while she’s certainly paying attention she doesn’t react as much as Vanitas expected. 

If someone had told his young self so bluntly that Xehanort had gotten his just desserts, he would have at least laughed. 

But Senna, as they eventually learn her name is, sits quietly, not moving except to move away from him when he tries to approach her. 

He lays awake that night, insomnia and concern chasing any hope of sleep that night. This isn’t new. He fidgets on the couch, idly wishing for his closet but all too aware of the ten year old inhabiting his room right now. 

He sits up and centers himself. If he’s going to be awake he might as well be doing something useful. He takes a deep breath, then another, and another. Slow, steady, practiced. 

He breathes. 

The mist floats between his lips and takes shape. 

-

He knocks on the closed door and waits. He knows she won’t call out, but he hopes she’ll give him some other kind of sign to enter, no matter how badly he wants to just go in. 

Silence. 

The cat he’d formed slinks down his arm, claws gripped in the fabric of his jacket, before plopping to the ground with a small thud. 

It scratches at the door, three times in quick succession, and then waits. 

_Thmp thmp thmp_

The door swings open and there’s Senna, staring down at the Versed with a wide eye. 

It leaps into her arms and she catches it on instinct. It tucks itself onto her shoulder, opposite her wounded eye. She stares up at Vanitas, stunned. 

“I wasn’t sure if-“ He starts, and then thinks better of it. “I’m glad it remembered you.”

Her grip on it tightens, and were it a normal animal it might have protested the treatment, but instead Vanitas just feels the languid stretch of contentment in the back of his mind from it. 

The girl whirls on her heel and vanishes into the room. The door is left ajar and he catches just a glimpse of her as she disappears into his closet and the nest he had more or less permanently set up there. 

Sensing he has been dismissed, he heads back downstairs. 

“So?” Comet asks as he enters the den, scribbling notes in a well worn book. Isa looks up from his reading chair, and Vanitas can only assume he just got back since he wasn’t in earlier. He wonders where Lea is. 

“It recognizes her, I think she’s pretty happy to see it.” He shrugs, but loosely. Comet smiles. 

“I’m glad.”

“Comet has been updating us, Lea went out to get some things. You may wish to dissuade him if he comes on too strongly later.” Isa intones. Comet chuckles. 

“He’s not that bad. He did great with Van, right?” They look over at Vanitas, still standing in the doorway. 

“Yeah, he did… don’t tell him that or his head won’t fit through the door.” He smirks, before his expression falls. “But.. maybe not right away. Tall men seem to make her twitchy. Moreso, anyway.”

“Noted.” Isa nods. “I will let him know. Anything else?”

“Too soon to say, I think.” Comet says. “I’m going to try talking to the kid tomorrow, before the officials get here.”

Vanitas nods. Better than any of the rest of them. He may have pulled her out of that place, but it was obvious she was still scared, and he knew better than anyone that patience was going to be necessary. 

-

It’s two days after that, the paperwork filled out and processing, that Senna leaves her room. 

Vanitas has been staying on the couch still, despite repeated offers from Roxas and Xion to stay in their room with them (“come on Van, we still share a bed half the time anyway, we’ll let you have the top bunk!”). His back is sore (not that he’d ever let on), and he hasn’t caught more than four consecutive hours of sleep since that night (not really related to the couch, but still a reality), but he refuses to move for reasons he doesn’t really feel up to analyzing. 

He lounges in were form, because the feline body was better for lounging on the lumpy furniture, and his ears perk at the quiet _tip tip tip_ of feet. He tries not to move, wondering where the little girl is headed and not wanting to startle her.

To his surprise she rounds the open corner from the stairs and comes to a stop in front of the couch, cat clutched tightly in her arms.

It doesn’t, can’t, purr, made for silence and stealth, but he feels it’s pleased countenance nonetheless. And even if he couldn’t, the lax body and squinted eyes tells him more than enough.

“What’s up?” He asks. She seems to hesitate, but only briefly, releasing the cat which clambers up to rest on her shoulders. She barely shifts, belying the strange weightlessness of the creature.

She lifts her hands, and signs a very shaky but heartfelt _‘thank you.’_ to him.

“You’re welcome.” He replies automatically. “For what?”

There is only a brief pause as she clearly tries to remember the word before she signs _‘Everything.’_ to him. She reaches up to clutch at her cat again, and then retreats back to her room.

He settles back onto the couch, face impassive, but the rumble in his chest betraying the distinct warmth spreading through his chest. 

_‘Protect.’_ he hears the little cat. _‘Protect.’_

 _‘Yeah.’_ He thinks. _‘Protect.’_

-

“Is Van coming?” Naminé asks Ven as the various were’s and assorted others mill around Sora’s den. Naminé has her drawing things out despite the additional challenges of working around fur, and Sora and Riku have competitive Jenga going, but everyone else seems mostly content to cuddle. Ven shrugs. 

“I thought so, but if he found out Hayner was here maybe he changed his mind.” Ven replies. Hayner waves his popsicle from where he’s lying against Roxas’ spotted form. 

“Is he still being weird about breaking my arm that one time? He knows I forgave him like four years ago right?”

Roxas snorts. 

“He might not. You’re really bad at verbalizing that stuff.”

“I’m here.” A voice calls before Hayner can answer, and Vanitas takes a single step into the room but no farther. 

“Van!” Xion calls, delighted. “Glad you could make it.”

He coughs. 

“I brought a guest.”

Roxas lifts his head, confused, and most others react with some level of curiosity. Vanitas steps aside to reveal a little girl no more than eight, with a bright green cat(?) wrapped around her shoulders, and a patch over one eye. 

“This is Senna, I’m taking care of her for a few days. Senna, this is my pack. Most of them are pretty cool but Sora is bouncy so be warned.”

“Hey!” Sora protests, even as both Riku and Kairi nod in agreement. 

Vanitas settles in next to Roxas, despite the somewhat awkward interaction with Hayner, and watches as Senna all but latches on to Naminé, her soft demeanour and eye catching artwork drawing the child like a moth to flame. 

Roxas peers up at him with a flat look. 

“You’re pulling a Comet, aren’t you?”

Vanitas flushes, but tries not to react otherwise. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Hayner just laughs. 

“Does this mean we have a new niece? I thought for sure Terra and Aqua would have been first.” Ven fishes through a back pocket, dropping some munny into Riku’s waiting hands. Vanitas scowls at Riku’s knowing smirk.

“It’s just a few days.” Vanitas asserts. Xion comes up behind him and rests their chin on his head with a chuckle. 

“Uh huh. She staying in your room or are you gonna start looking for your own place?” They ask. He flusters. 

“It’s just for a few days!” He protests loudly. 

Senna curls in on herself over where Naminé is showing her the different pencils. Vanitas feels suddenly guilty despite the apparent truth of the plan, though he’s not entirely sure why. 

(Or perhaps he just doesn’t want to admit it.)

“Look it’s just.. there’s other stuff that needs to be figured out first.” He says. “It was different for Comet, I didn’t have anyone to try and come after me. Well not legally, anyway.”

Roxas chuckles. 

“You’re totally keeping her.”

“Shut up.”

He’s right. 

**Author's Note:**

> i dont do Babies/Children Ever After as a trope tbh, but there's just something really good about Vanitas breaking the cycle of abuse to me. idk.


End file.
